The Village Pump
The village water pump used to be the central meeting place in many English villages, the place where news and gossip was shared while the collecting buckets of water for the family's use. This rather elaborate one stands in Watton-at-Stone in Hertfordshire and dates from the nineteenth century. It's rather grander than most with its own little shelter. The ornate pump is said to have started life as the barrel of a cannon, so has completed the transformation from killer to saviour.
For The Good Of The Community
The shop and Post Office in the village of Houghton proudly announces that it is "Community owned". In these days when everything has to make a profit many villages are losing many of their amenities. Although it's OK for those who can jump in their cars and shop in the nearest town, many people, especially the elderly, rely on local services. In another village the church has taken on running the Post Office and a tea-room. In the next village to mine the villagers have worked together to keep their local pub open.
The grave of George Game Day is a rather grand affair standing in the churchyard in St Ives. Back in the days when only landowners could vote in parliamentary elections Mr Day hit on an ingenious scheme. He bought a small farm and then sold it off as 35 separate pieces of land, thereby creating 35 new landowners who would join with him in voting for the Whig candidate. Such shenanigans landed him in court but the scandal did not impede his political career and he became one of the most influential men in the town.
A Footpath Runs Through It
Visitors to these shores are often surprised at the number of footpaths and rights of way which are available to the walker. Although rules about diverting paths have been relaxed a bit lately it is still very difficult to legally prevent people from going where they've been going "since time immemorial". In the case of the building above, they got permission to build over the path but had to leave a convenient passage to allow walkers to go through.
The Village Blacksmith
Just outside Houghton Church is the grave of the village blacksmith, Thomas Garner, inscribed with a suitable rhyme:
My sledge and hammers be declined
My bellows too have lost their wind
My fires extinct, my forge decay'd,
My vice is in the dust all laid.
My coal is spent, my iron gone,
My nails are drove, my work is done.
My fire dried corpse here lies at rest,
My soul smoke-like soars to be blest
Take care.
John I look forward to your tours round and your snippets of information.i love the tombstone inscription - you don;t see them like that these days.
ReplyDeleteInteresting tidbits, John. The tombstone inscription is unique!
ReplyDeleteI do enjoy learning about the characters from around your villages!
ReplyDelete& what a name for Mr Game Day!
Love this post, John. I wonder if our postal system would be any better in the US if it was locally (rather than Federally) owned? I liked all your photos. Don't know if I'd love having a footpath run below my house!
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting variety of fun and learning! In Toccoa GA (laws are different everywhere else), you have to put up a sign (at least, for one day a year) if you don't want the public using your land as a shortcut. Otherwise, you would lose the area to the city.
ReplyDeleteInteresting bits and pieces.
ReplyDeleteSo interesting. I like the idea of a community owned post office. I am a bit surprised that the owner of the building was allowed to build over the old path, even though the path through the building is there.
ReplyDeleteWow, that is quite an inscription.
ReplyDeleteChange comes and we all adapt somehow. The English do it so practically and admirably.
ReplyDeleteHi John - wonderful notations on life in your part of the world ... great photographs. Loved seeing these - cheers Hilary
ReplyDeleteFascinating snippets, I've enjoyed them all. Good for George Game Day:)
ReplyDeleteAnother delightful series of images and tales, John. Thank you. The shot of the Community owned shop and Post Office has particular significance to me because of its location - Houghton: that is also the name of the hamlet in the foothills of the Mt Lofty Ranges here in Adelaide, South Australia, where I attend church!
ReplyDeleteThank you for dropping by my blog and I agree about the potential naming of a new children's show - cute! Take care - and thanks for the joy your images and stories bring to many around the world.
Love seeing these views of places you've wandered. Always full of stories.
ReplyDeleteCommunity owned Post Office is a great idea, so many of them are closing down here and people rely on not only the service but also the social aspect of it. I wonder if the blacksmith requested that the inscription be place on his tombstone. Interesting finds and photos.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful epitaph for the village blacksmith. Its sad to see the services in small villages closing down. Everyone has a car (well, not everyone....) and can drive to the nearest supermarket for shopping. Wonder what will happen when the world runs out of fuel to keep the cars on the road????
ReplyDeleteWith the others--that epitaph! My son Derek is planning to take up blacksmithing. He has the forge and other stuff needed, just needs time now, I think.
ReplyDeleteHow interesting to make a water pump from a cannon. And I've never seen a decorated cannon. What a nice epitaph.
ReplyDeleteOh, my, what a poem to end with...a few short lines that say so much. I love the idea of footpaths...so many places I would love to wander through and they are all marked with no trespassing signs. Which, I understand on one hand...here if someone was on your land and fell and got hurt, they would be apt to sue.
ReplyDelete